Going back to university while in debt.

nubbz

Hi, Hopefully this is the right place to post it.

I'll try and keep it brief.

I currently have a loan with tesco bank which is currently at £25000 pounds or around £20k if I pay it off now(early repayment figure)
I really want to go and do college in September though which will allow me to go to university the following year.

As it stands right now my monthly payments are £397 a month.
I've just paid £1000 to reduce the repayments to £375 a month.
Realistically speaking I can overpay an extra £1000 a month each month until September (when the course starts) which will reduce the payments quite a bit.
Would you say this is the best way to do it?

I know the best way to pay it off is to pay the loan early via reducing the term as you pay less interest but I can not realistically pay off 20k in 9 months.


So basically if i get my monthly repayments to like £150 a month do you think that will be manageable as a student with potentially only working part time?
I've done a few fag packet calculations and as a student I'll prob spend like £100 a month on food, 100 on travel and 50 on phone/broadband. Which means my monthly expenditure will be around £400 a month.
So (roughly speaking) I will have to find £400 a month as a student.
Will this be manageable? Sorry if this is a stupid question but I have no idea about what it's like living as a student and what expenses to expect... Also has anyone else been at university while at debt and did it bother them/hang of them?

I know the sensible thing to do is defer education for another year and pay the loan off completely but my job is soul destroying and I can't stomach that long.

agrinnall

We really can't say whether it's manageable without knowing how much maintenance loan you will get. If you get full loan, and there is good opportunity for you to find part time work then it may well be possible, even if you occasionally have to live off beans on toast for a while until you get some more money coming in.

nubbz

My first year will be an access course so I wont have a maintenance loan.

I suspect JSA will not allow me to sign on as I left F/T work to do an access course. So I suspect for the first year I'll defiantly have to find P/T work.